State Residents Favor Inmate Rehab

About two of three Californians favor spending money to rehabilitate state prison inmates convicted of drug or property crimes, and they want such programs available to parolees, according to a poll released today.

The poll, commissioned by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, also found that a similar proportion believed a lack of life skills, such as vocational training, was a major factor in recidivism.

“People think that prisons make people worse and that life skills are necessary to make it on the outside,” said Barry Krisberg, president of the Oakland-based nonprofit formed in 1907 by probation officers. “You get a sense that people know the current system is not working.”

California’s tough sentencing laws and a recidivism rate of more than 50% have sent the prison population soaring to 163,000 and the annual budget to $5.7 billion. So the poll was heartening to corrections officials who have advocated more programs to better prepare convicts for release and to keep them from coming back.

“With the recidivism numbers we’re seeing, we clearly have to do something different to provide for public safety,” said Roderick Hickman, the new secretary of the Youth and Adult Corrections Agency. “We have to stop the spiral of continual victimization and reoffending.”

The survey was conducted by the Field Research Corp., which asked more than 1,000 adults about the punishment of drug and property offenders constituting the majority of inmates in the 32 state prisons.

Although the official mission of the California Department of Corrections has deemphasized rehabilitation for years, the poll found that 8% of respondents want only incarceration for drug and property crimes, while 63% favor providing offenders rehabilitation services, even after release.

Fifty-six percent agreed that crime would drop if drug and property offenders were provided rehabilitation and education instead of being incarcerated. That number is up from 35% in 1982, when a similar question was asked in a Field survey.

Californians are skeptical about the effectiveness of the state’s prisons. A majority of respondents said the prison experience itself is a major factor in whether a released inmate reoffends and goes back.

And about three-quarters said those released after prison sentences are just as likely or more likely to commit another crime. Only 14% thought prisoners were less likely to commit a crime after being released.

Corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton said she could not provide spending figures for rehabilitation, noting that “California law says the purpose of incarceration is punishment, not rehabilitation.”

However, Thornton said, the department is proposing to spend $141 million for vocational and educational programs next year -- a $4-million increase. Academic programs would get a $14.2-million increase, but vocational education would see a $10.2-million decrease.

There are 7,731 inmates in vocational education -- which has been cut recently -- 10,500 in traditional academic programs and 16,447 in a new in-cell instruction program. An additional 6,000 are working in prison-industry jobs. Drug and alcohol programs also are conducted.

During a confirmation hearing Wednesday, new corrections Director Jeanne Woodford said one of her priorities would be better preparing inmates for parole, lengthening a pre-release program offering practical skills from three weeks to six months.